Thursday Music News

Four years after his last album, Baltimore electronic musician/live tour de force Dan Deacon is releasing a new long-player, America, on August 28th on Domino Records. “Lots”, the noisy and raucous third track on the album is now available for streaming and download at his website. Although Deacon has sporadic festival dates in North America throughout July and a European tour in September, there’s no word on when or if there will be a full-fledged tour behind the release.

Neil Young and Crazy Horse haven’t toured or released any output since 2004, but this year, they’re trying their damned hardest to make up for lost time. Along with a slew of headlining festival spots this summer, they’ve just released a full-length silent film to accompany their forthcoming album of reinterpretations of American folk songs, Americana. Filmed a few weeks ago with the help of Shepard Fairey, the film stars Young as an author seeking illustrations for his new book and features music from Americana. The film is now streaming at NPR, Americana is up at Neil Young’s Soundcloud, and the album will see a formal release on June 5th. If that’s not enough Neil Young for you, he’s got with Crazy Horse in the works and the postponed Buffalo Springfield reunion may come to fruition this year too.

After seeing a vinyl release on Record Store Day last month, The Flaming Lips will release their collaborative album The Flaming Lips and Heady Friends on CD and digital download on June 26th via Warner Bros. This release features a new track with Ghostland Observatory’s Aaron Behrens alongside collaborations with Ke$ha, Bon Iver, Nick Cave, Jim James, Yoko Ono, Chris Martin, and pretty much anyone else they could find. In other, non-collaborative news, the band is finishing up work on their next official studio album, due to be released in the fall with a supporting tour, and the musical version of Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots will premiere at the La Jolla Playhouse in San Diego during the 2012/2013 season.

If four years away has left a period of uncertainty about the future of the band, Bloc Party just announced that they will release their fourth album, Four, on Frenchkiss Records on August 21st. Recorded and mixed in New York City, the album was produced by Alex Newport (At The Drive-In, The Mars Volta), frontman Kele Okereke detailed the behind the scenes drama and the recording of the album on his blog, saying “I needed to put my band back together, I missed my friends.” The band has dates booked from June until November, including a handful of North American shows. Check out a full tour itinerary and a teaser video for Four at Pitchfork.

Not content with only releasing a 7″ of new material on Third Man Records’ Blue Series, Beck has teamed up with Childish Gambino (who has also beenfairlyprolificas of late) for “Silk Pillow.” Co-produced by both artists, the track features Beck’s first recorded rapping since 2006 and Gambino’s first recorded rapping since last week. Listen to the track over at Consequence of Sound and stay tuned for any news regarding any other surprise tracks from either artist.